Arcanotherium
Temporal range: Late Eocene–Early Oligocene
Arcanotherium savagei specie
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: †Numidotheriidae
Genus: †Arcanotherium
Delmer, 2009
Species:
†A. savagei
Binomial name
†Arcanotherium savagei
Court, 1995

Arcanotherium is an extinct genus of early proboscidean belonging to the family Numidotheriidae that lived in north Africa during the late Eocene/early Oligocene interval.

Taxonomy

Arcanotherium was originally described by Court (1995) as a new species of Numidotherium, N. savagei, based on a mandible found in the late 1960s in late Eocene deposits at Dor el Talha, Libya.[1] However, after the Barytherium material from Libya became accessible to paleontologists, undescribed material from the collection prompted Delmer (2009) to erect Arcanotherium for N. savagei.[2]

Phylogeny

Below is a phylogenetic tree of early Proboscidea, based on the work of Hautier et al. (2021).[3]

  Proboscidea 

References

  1. ^ N. Court. 1995. A new species of Numidotherium (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from the Eocene of Libya and the early phylogeny of the Proboscidea. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15(3):650-671.
  2. ^ C. Delmer. 2009. Reassessment of the generic attribution of Numidotherium savagei and the homologies of lower incisors in proboscideans. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54(4):561-580
  3. ^ Hautier, Lionel; Tabuce, Rodolphe; Mourlam, Mickaël J.; Kassegne, Koffi Evenyon; Amoudji, Yawovi Zikpi; Orliac, Maëva; Quillévéré, Frédéric; Charruault, Anne-Lise; Johnson, Ampah Kodjo Christophe; Guinot, Guillaume (2021-10-13). "New Middle Eocene proboscidean from Togo illuminates the early evolution of the elephantiform-like dental pattern". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 288 (1960): 20211439. doi:10.1098/rspb.2021.1439. PMC 8511763. PMID 34641726.


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